We squeezed through the overheated crowd, attracting more attention than we wished. For the audience standing in the afternoon sunlight, it must have been like watching the guy in the black Jeep with a suntanned blonde who pulls out on the shoulder and speeds by while you're stuck in traffic in a green Pacer packed with grocery bags.
When we reached the gate we downshifted into neutral. Security guy after security guy called for an okay. Finally the gate swung open and we were behind the scenes at a DC Talk concert, ready to interview the opening band, Audio Adrenaline.
The backstage lot was eerily spacious after the jam-packed sardine-can crowd-pen. A nondescript stagehand waved us over to an unhitched trailer. We banged on the door, and after a moment it opened. A black curtain slowly pulled back to reveal the crusty-eyed lead singer, Mark Stuart.
We sat down outside as people wandered by, walking out their pre-concert kinks and nervousness. A guy in denim overalls swept past: it was Kevin Smith of DC Talk. He grinned over at Audio Adrenaline and yelled out: "You'd better tell 'em you're Buddhist."
3.16: Zen Buddhist, I hope. Those are our favorite kind.
Fronting for DC Talk is a long way from Bible college. The guys in audio Adrenaline--Barry Blair, Bob Herdman, Will McGinniss, and Mark Stuart-- met at Kentucky Christian College, where they were majoring in Bible, Education, and Music.
Mark: We got together to do a song called "My God" about two years ago and that's the song that Bob wrote and Forefront [now their record label] heard. We'd just kinda do the song as a joke, to have fun, and it took off. Forefront signed us off one song. We did that first album, and it's been a whirlwind kind of thing, where God's been in control and we've just been riding the ride. We had no idea what was going on, really.
3.16: What kind of music did you listen to before starting the band?
Bob: We all listen to different things, so we all four got a wide variety of music that reflects our backgrounds.
Will: I came from more of an alternative background, and Barry was something like a "rocker."
Bob: Mark's the pop-- he brings the total pop vein to it-- Bryan Adams.
Barry: I was also the main country music influence, Dwight Yoakum, stuff like that.
3.16: There's a pretty good mix on the album...
Barry: We like to mix things together that don't seem to go together, to see if we can do it-- it's an experiment.
Mark: We debate about that all the time, whether we should find a niche, or that our niche is what we're like, or what's wrong with playing music that we all like to play-- everybody gets to be happy, you know? So, sometimes the reviewers will say, "You know, your first record was really a lot more diverse than this one. This is more focused on alternative dance groves," and stuff like that, which is great-- we still like to keep it where it's entertaining all the way throughout.
Barry: We might do country thrash on our next album...
3.16: Country thrash... i'll be waiting for it.
Mark: We're trying things...
3.16: How have people in your lives or from your background shaped your music?
Will: For me, there was Bible college, since I didn't have the typical Christian home to grow up in till I was a junior in high school. So most of my faith in God came from Bible college and different family members who really encouraged me.
Mark: I've been a Christian since I was eight years old. There's a definitely times when I've started to go, "Well, am I a Christian because of what my parents have toldme, or am I a Christian because of what I believe?" I've had to really soul-search to se if it was real for me. Then I came back to Christ in college, and actually took a semester off in Hati where my parents worked as missionaries.
3.16: So that gave you a feel for missions?
Mark: Yeah, I dedicated my life to missions when I was in high school at a youth conference, and I still feel called to missions. I believe right now that this is our-- this is my mission. That's why we're so bold about what we sing, because just plain music's not enough to me anymore. We've experienced all we can experience in playing music, playing ot 15,000 tonight, then doing a gig for forty people in a church and talking with everybody there-- we've done the whole spectrum. If it doesn't have a spiritual element, it's not worth all the effort. No secular band could come in with the same kind of effect-- it's just empty: it's music and then the band leaves and there's nothing left behind.
3.16: How do the lyrics come together?
Mark: Bob (on keyboards) has been gifted with writing lyrics. I don't know what it is or how to describe it-- he's the most non-musical of the group but the most creative lyrically. Maybe the more you know about music, the harder it is to be creative.
3.16: When you get lyrics together, is it just what you feel comfortable with or do other people review them?
Mark: We show them around-- people at the record company, maybe Toby, DC Talk, maybe somebody in our family, and just each other. We get opinions and we've changed things because enough people said, "This misht not be understood the way you mean it to be."
3.16: You hit censorship pretty hard in your songs, you talk about race relationships, love... but "My Scum Sweetheart," what's that about?
Bob: Did you ever read the lyrics?
3.16: I did, I went back, but--
Bob: And you still didn't understand it?
3.16: I'm working on it, I'm thinking maybe a broken relationship--
Bob: Me and the World, okay? "My Scum Sweetheart." It's talking about someone's affair with the world... people fall in love with the world and all they do is love the world. It's not talking about a guy or a girl.
3.16: It's a great big metaphor.
Mark: That's what it is. You know, people don't even realize it, but they're in a deceitful trap. It blinds them and it's just like the Battered-Wife Syndrome. They stay in that situation and totally get beat up and don't even realize it. They're in a deceitful trap. There are so many better things for them and they just keep getting abused-- it's a stink all the way around.
Bob: Right.
3.16: A bad love affair with the whole world.
The group Out of Eden swings by our park benches: they're also opening for DC Talk tonight. Intros go all around the circle as the women from Out of Eden laughingly deny they're taking over the interview, "No, no, adding a little sunshine, that's all." AA watches them saunter away, "You ought to interview them sometime; they're very cool, very cool."
3.16: You were talking earlier about a new level of boldness...
Mark: Yeah, I talked to someone last night about this and they're like, "How do you go on stage every night being focused and all that when you're on tour?" It's very hard to do. Speaking for myself, to go out and be the front man, to speak between every song and try to be real with everybody, it's very intimidating to take the stage. It's like going to a pulpit every night, standing up and preaching, because that's literally what we ddo, and it's very intense. The Lord keeps you right on the fire, you know. Just a lot of prayer, for me, keeping it going.
3.16: What's your response like from the fans?
Mark: We get letters all the time. Mainly from people that listen to our CDs, or that listen to some of the radio stations out there that pley Christian alternative music. A lot of our audience is Christian. We consider ourselves encouragers. But then we are in these situations like tonight, where we're playing for a lot of non-Christians,. I'm sure they'll definitely hear the gospel... we're not in a position where we get to see the end a lot, but we do get to plant seeds. We just have to trust God and-- He's faithful, you know. If we plant the seed. He'll water it and nurture it.
